"NOW TAKE A GOOD LOOK," WHISPERED SUE TO BUNNY.
"NOW TAKE A GOOD LOOK," WHISPERED SUE TO BUNNY.Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour. Page153.
For a few seconds the medicine man looked sharply at Mr. Brown. He did not appear to understand what the children's father had asked. Then, finally, Dr. Perry asked:
"Is it a joke you are making?"
"No, indeed. I'm serious," said Mr. Brown. "We are looking for a lost boy, or rather, a runaway boy, named Fred Ward. The Wards live next door to us, and when we started on this trip, which is not yet finished, the boy's parents said they would be glad if we would try to find him and send him——"
"Tell us, please," broke in Bunny, unable to wait any longer for the question he wanted answered. "Tell us if your banjo player is really colored?"
"Oh yes, he's reallycoloredall right," said the medicine man, "but not by Mother Nature."
"What's that mean?" asked Sue.
"That means, little girl," said Dr. Perry as he put away the unsold bottles of his medicine, "that my banjo player blackens his face and hands himself, and reddens his lips, to make him look like a negro."
"Can you tell us who he really is?"
"No, I am sorry to say I can not," said Dr. Perry, and he bowed respectfully to Mrs. Brown, who had asked the question. "But I'll let you ask him yourself. He usually goes in back there," and he nodded toward his wagon, "to wash the black off after the show each night. No doubt he is in there now scrubbing himself, for I must say he is a very clean person, is John Lane."
"John Lane! Is that what he calls himself?" asked Mr. Brown.
"He has since he has been with me, which, however, is only the last few days. I called him professor just for fun, as it sounds better with the public. But I'll let you ask him yourself. He must be through washing by now. It may be he is a runaway boy. It wouldn't be the first time I've had 'em joinme. Sometimes they get sorry and run back home again, and sometimes they drift away and I don't see 'em again. But we'll soon find out if this is the boy you want."
He opened a door leading off the back platform. It seemed to give admittance to the middle of the medicine van.
"Here you, John! John Lane!" called Dr. Perry. "There are some folks out here who want to see you. They want to see how you look when you have the black off. You ought to be washed now, for it's almost time to go to the hotel for the night. Come on out."
There was no answer to the medicine man's call. He stepped inside the wagon, called again, and then, lighting a lamp, which stood in a bracket, looked around inside the van.
"John seems to have gone," the medicine man said. "I guess he finished washing off the black, and then slipped out the front way to go to the hotel. He did that once before, without waiting for me to count up my money and come along. You see I travel only by day, putting up the horse, that draws my van, at a hotel stable each night.
"Then John, or whomever I have with me to make the music to draw a crowd, and I, go to the hotel to stay all night. In the morning, after breakfast, we start out again. Sometimes, in a big city I stay a week, selling in different places.
"But that boy, whoever he is, has gone. I can see where he's been washing the black off, and, not wanting to wait when he saw I was talking to you folks, I guess he just slipped away. John is a bashful boy."
"Do you know anything about him?" asked Mr. Brown. "Where did he come from, and where is he going? Did he give any account of himself?"
"Not much, except that he came to me the other day just after my violin player left me. I had to have somebody musical to draw the crowd, and he surely can play the banjo.
"So I hired him. He said his name was Lane and that he had to make his own way in the world. Said he wanted to be a player in a theater.
"I told him my place was a sort of open-air theater and ought to suit him," said Dr. Perrywith a smile, "and he said he thought he would like it. So I engaged him and he did very well. You are the first persons that have inquired about him."
"We are not sure heisthe runaway Fred we are looking for," said Mr. Brown. "It is hard to tell with all that black he had on. But I should like to meet him."
"Go to the hotel any time between now and morning," suggested the medicine man. "I guess the boy will be glad to talk to you."
"I'll see him in the morning," said Bunny's father. "I'd like to get this boy to go home, if he is really Fred Ward. His mother and father miss him very much."
"I'll do all I can for you," promised the medicine man. "Come to the hotel in the morning and I'll let you talk to him. I won't say anything in the meanwhile, because if he is really Fred, and has run off as you say, he won't want to meet you or go back with you. It's best to take him unawares."
Mr. Brown agreed to this, and then, with his wife and Bunny and Sue, started for the "Ark." On the way they discussed what hadhappened. They saw the medicine man, as they turned down the curve in the road, driving his horse and van toward the hotel.
"I'm sure it's Fred," said Sue.
"So am I," added Bunny. "Won't it begreatif we find him so soon?"
"It may not be the missing boy," said Mr. Brown. "But we'll know in the morning."
Those in the "Ark" passed a quiet night, though they went to bed later than usual because of the excitement of the evening. Uncle Tad was interested in hearing the news about the blackened-up banjo player who might prove to be Fred Ward.
"And how's Fluffy, our squirrel?" asked Sue.
"Fast asleep, just as Dix and Splash are," answered Uncle Tad.
Bunny and Sue were awake early the next morning, but Daddy Brown was ahead of them, and their mother said he had gone on to the hotel to see about the banjo boy.
"May we go there after we have eaten?" asked Bunny. "We want to see Fred."
"It might not be he," said Mrs. Brown."You had better wait until your father comes back."
At first Bunny and Sue fretted a bit, but finally they became interested in playing games under the big tree where the "Ark" had rested for the night, and before they knew it their father came back.
"But he hasn't brought Fred!" cried Bunny.
"Maybe the minstrel boy wasn't the one after all," suggested Mrs. Brown.
"Well, I'm inclined to think he was," said her husband.
"Did you see him?" eagerly asked Bunny.
"No, he had run away. That's why I think it was Fred."
Then Mr. Brown explained:
"When I got to the hotel," he told Bunny, Sue and the others, "I saw Dr. Perry walking around rather nervously. I asked him about the boy, and he said that when he and his medicine van reached the hotel after closing the show last night, he found that his banjo player had packed his valise, taken his banjo, and gone off."
"Where?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Nobody knows. He left no word. That's what makes me think it was Fred. He must have seen us in the crowd. And, as soon as he could wash the black off his face, he hurried to the hotel ahead of Dr. Perry, got his bag and ran away. Very likely he did not want to see us and hear us give him the message from his parents. His heart must still be hard against them. It is too bad, if that was Fred, for I had begun to think I had found him. Still it may have been some other young fellow. Dr. Perry said they often came and went without giving any reasons. But we'll still be on the lookout for the missing boy."
Once more the "Ark" started off, and for several days there was just ordinary travel. The children played and had fun, the dogs raced along the road, barking and enjoying themselves, and the weather was fine. Then came another day of hard rain, and the "Ark" was kept under a big oak tree.
The day after the rain, when the wayside brooks were still high, but the roads fairly good, Mr. Brown went on again. They werecoming to a small town, and had to cross a ditch over which was a small bridge. Usually there was but little water in the ditch, but now, because of the rain, the banks were full.
"I hope this bridge is strong enough for our car to go over," said Mr. Brown. Slowly he steered the big machine on it. Hardly had it reached the middle when there was a cracking of wood, and the bridge bent down. The automobile sank with it.
"Oh!" cried Bunny, who sat in the back door. "We're going into the ditch, Daddy!"
"We're therenow!" said Sue as the "Ark" stopped with a jerk and a bounce.
There was no doubt about it, the big automobile was in the ditch. Or rather, the rear wheels, having gone through the small bridge, were now in the water of a little brook. The rains had made the usually dry ditch into a brook that flowed swiftly along.
"Oh dear!" cried Mrs. Brown. "This is too bad!"
"Anybody hurt back there?" asked Mr. Brown, who, at the first feeling that something was wrong, had put on the brakes. The automobile would have stopped anyhow, as the wheels were held fast in the mud and the broken pieces of the bridge.
"No, we're all right," answered Uncle Tad, looking at Bunny and Sue, who, at the first sound of something wrong had crept closer to their mother.
"My nose feels as if I had bumped it," saidBunny, rubbing his "smeller" as he sometimes called it. "Though I don't remember doing it," he went on.
"I guess you did it when you jumped out of your seat," said his mother. "We all jumped, it came so suddenly."
"And I dropped my Teddy bear and Uncle Tad stepped on her," murmured Sue with sorrow in her tones. "Look, Uncle Tad, you've turned on her eyes!"
And, surely enough, the electric eyes of Sallie Malinda were glowing brightly. Uncle Tad must have stepped on the switch button in the toy's back and turned it on.
"But I guess she's all right," went on Sue, as she turned off the switch and then turned it on again to see that it was working as it should. "You didn't hurt her, Uncle Tad," she said.
"I'm glad of that, Sue," said the old soldier. "Now I guess I'd better get around to see if I can help your father get the automobile out of the ditch."
Dix and Splash, who had been racing up and down the road, came back, panting andwith their long red tongues hanging out of their mouths, to see what the trouble was. They looked at the ditched automobile with their heads on one side, and then sort of barked at one another. It was as if Dix said:
"Well, what do you think about it, Splash? Do you think we had better stay here and help them?"
"Oh, I don't see anythingwecan do," answered Splash. At least itseemedas if he spoke that way. "Let's keep on playing tag."
And so the two dogs raced away.
"We do seem to be in a fix," remarked Mr. Brown as he came as near as he could to the back of the automobile without getting into the ditch.
"Whatcanwe do?" asked Mrs. Brown, and her voice was anxious.
"We'll soon see," answered her husband. "In the first place you had all better get out of the car. I don't know how long it may stand upright. It may topple over if the water washes away more mud from under one wheel than from under another, and you'll be better out than in."
"But how are we going togetout?" asked Bunny. "The back steps are all under water!"
And so they were. When the bridge broke with the automobile the front wheels were off the wooden planks and on the road beyond, and the rear wheels went down when the bridge broke in the middle. So the "Ark" was standing as though it had come to a sudden stop going up a steep hill, at the bottom of which was a brook. The rear wheels, and all but the top one of the back steps were under water.
"You can crawl out over the front seat," said Mr. Brown. "From there you can easily get down to the ground if Uncle Tad and I help you. Then, Mother, you might try your hand at getting a lunch, for it will soon be noon, while Uncle Tad and I see what we can do about getting the automobile out of the ditch."
"It will be some fun after all," said Bunny as he crawled out over the front seat. "We can picnic alongside the road, Sue, and watch Daddy and Uncle Tad get the car out."
"Yes," said Bunny's sister. "And maybe I'll make a pie for you and Sallie Malinda."
"No, I guess I wouldn't try a pie to-day," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "We won't be able to use any stove except the small oil one, out on the ground, and that will cook only a few things. We'll wait for the pie until the auto is safe on the road again."
"I hope we can get it out of the ditch without breaking anything," said Mr. Brown, as he helped his wife and children down the high front steps of the big car, and then lifted out the oil stove, and other things that would be needed for the lunch.
"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"A little," answered her husband. "But at least none of us can be hurt, and the worst that can happen will be a little damage to our car."
"Oh, the dear old 'Ark!'" cried Mrs. Brown. "I hope it won't be damaged much."
"So do I," said her husband. "If I had known that bridge was so weak as to let us fall through I would have gone a differentroad. But I suppose the rain and high water weakened the supports. However, don't worry. We'll see what can be done."
After a look at the way in which the rear wheels of the big car were lodged in the ditch, Uncle Tad and Mr. Brown went to the nearest town on foot to get help. Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Sue made a little camp beside the road, the children helping a little, and then running about to play. The two dogs joined them in their fun.
"I guess I'll make a little cornstarch pudding," said Mrs. Brown, as she got the other things ready for lunch; and when the pudding was finished she covered it up, so no ants or bugs would get in it, and set it in a hollow stump to keep until it would be needed for the dessert after the lunch.
It was not long before Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad came back riding in a big automobile truck which they had hired at the nearest garage to pull the "Ark" out of the ditch.
"Will you have lunch first?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, I guess we will," said her husband. "We'll eat while the garage men are getting ropes and chains around our car to pull it out of the ditch."
And so they ate their dinner under the shade of a big tree beside the road. Two men had come in the auto truck to work for Mr. Brown, and they went about it quickly, putting strong ropes and chains on the "Ark."
"And now I have a little surprise for you," said Mrs. Brown as she poured tea for herself, Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad, and set milk before the children.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Sue.
"Fine!" exclaimed Bunny.
Mrs. Brown went to the hollow stump. She looked in and then she cried:
"Oh, dear! No I haven't any either."
"Any what, either?" asked Mr. Brown.
"Surprise for you. I made a nice cocoanut cornstarch pudding, and put it in this hollow stump, covering it up. But something has come along and eaten it."
For a moment there was a silence, and then Bunny cried:
"Maybe it was a hungry bear!"
"Or maybe it was our squirrel Fluffy," said Sue. "He can hop around a little now, 'cause his leg is almost well."
"Hum, the pudding's gone, is it?" said Mr. Brown. "That's too bad. Come here, sir!" he suddenly called to Splash. The dog, who was lying beside Dix near the brook, arose slowly and came to Mr. Brown, tail between his legs and head drooping.
"And you too, Dix! Come here!" ordered Mr. Brown.
Dix walked up exactly as Splash had done, with drooping head and tail. Mr. Brown took hold of the head of first one dog and then the other. He looked closely at their mouths.
"Here we have the pudding thieves!" he cried. "Splash and Dix found the dessert in the hollow stump and ate it. Didn't you, you rascals?"
The dogs whined and said not a "word." It was very plain that they had taken the pudding.
"Oh, please don't whip them, Daddy!" begged Bunny.
"No; I won't," said Mr. Brown.
"I shouldn't have left the pudding where they could get it," said Mrs. Brown. "It was all my fault. I'll make another for supper."
However, there were some cakes in a tin can in the "Ark," and as Uncle Tad climbed in and got them out for the children before the garage men started to pull the stalled automobile out with their machine, Bunny and Sue had a little dessert after all.
"We're all ready to try to get your car out of the ditch now, Mr. Brown," said one of the garage men.
"Oh, let's watch, Sue!" cried Bunny.
"But keep out of the way," ordered their father.
There was a puffing of the other auto truck, a grinding of the wheels, and then the "Ark" was pulled slowly out of the ditch, and on to the road again, the hind wheels running on long planks which the men put under them. Thus out on to the safe and solid road rolled the "Ark."
"Hurrah!" cried Bunny Brown.
"Now we're all right," said his Sister Sue.
And indeed they were, for it was found that nothing was broken on the big machine in which the Brown family were making their tour.
Mr. Brown paid the garage men, who went back to their shop, and the "Ark" was soon on its way again.
"And the next time I come to a small bridge I'm going to find out how much weight it will carry before I cross it," said the children's father.
For a week or more the "Ark" traveled on. Every time he got a chance Mr. Brown asked about Fred, in the different towns through which they passed, but could get no trace of the missing boy.
They saw other medicine showmen who had with them players or singers, but none of them were at all like the runaway Fred.
"It must have been he who was with Dr. Perry," said Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, and I presume he feared we knew him and so he ran on farther," her husband added. "He may be in Portland now."
"How soon shall we be there?" asked Bunny.
"In a few more days now."
Two days later, as they camped outside a little village for the night, they saw beside the road a signboard which read:
TWENTY MILES TO PORTLAND
"Oh, we'll be there to-morrow!" cried Bunny. "Then we can find Fred, and can send him to his mamma and papa!"
Mr. Brown was awakened in the morning feeling little hands tugging at him as he lay in his bunk, and childish voices crying:
"Come on, Daddy! Get up! Get up!"
"Eh? What's this? Get up!" he exclaimed. "Why, what's the matter, Bunny and Sue?" he went on, as he saw the two standing inside the curtains that hung in front of his bed.
"It's time to get up," said Sue.
"Why, it isn't six o'clock yet," answered her father, looking at his watch, which was under his pillow. "Why are you out of your bunks so early? Go back to sleep."
"But we want to get on to Portland to find Fred Ward," said Bunny. "It's only twenty miles and we can soon be there if we start early."
"There isn't much you children forget, is there?" asked Mr. Brown with a laugh, as he stretched and rubbed his eyes. Then as he opened wide his arms Bunny and Sue piled into the bunk with him, having a good, hearty tussle, until their shouts of laughter awakened Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad, while Dix and Splash, asleep under the big car, added their barks to the din.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Has anything more happened?"
"Oh, these children want to leave before breakfast for Portland, to find that runaway boy," said Mr. Brown. "Well, as long as they're awake I suppose we might as well get up and start early. It's about time I attended to my business affairs."
Breakfast was soon ready, and when it had been eaten the "Ark" was once more chugging along the road. The travelers passed through several small villages and then they came to the edge of a big city which, the children's father told them, was Portland.
"Are we going to stay in the auto while we're here?" asked Bunny, for Mr. Brownhad said they would probably remain in Portland for nearly a week, as he had several matters to look after.
"No, I'll give you a chance to stretch your legs," said his father. "We'll store the automobile in a garage and you can live at a hotel while I'm getting my business in shape."
"But what about Dix and Splash?" asked Bunny. "Where can they stay?"
"Oh, we'll find a hotel with a garage attached to it, and leave the dogs there in charge of the 'Ark,'" said Mr. Brown.
"And what about finding Fred?" Sue queried. She, as well as Bunny, was greatly interested in the missing boy.
"Oh, I'll do all I can to find him," promised Mr. Brown.
A hotel, with a garage attached to it, was easily found in Portland, and as the "Ark" went through the streets many persons turned to look at it. But Bunny and Sue did not mind this in the least.
"They'll think we're a new kind of gypsy," said Bunny.
"And they'll all wish they was us, ridingaround this way," said Sue, as she laughed with Bunny.
"'They was us.' Oh, Sue!" groaned her mother.
Dix and Splash did not like very much being left alone in the garage, and they whined and barked as they were chained near the auto. But the garage keeper promised to be kind to them, to let them run about after a while and to feed and water them.
"And we'll come to see you every once in a while," said Bunny and Sue, as they patted and hugged their two pets.
Fluffy, the squirrel, now well again, had been set free, before entering the city, in the woods that he loved.
So, for a while the Browns gave up their "Ark," and settled down to hotel life. Mr. Brown had much business to look after in connection with his fish and dock affairs at home, for he was part owner of a steamship line that ran from Portland to Bellemere.
After a day or two he found a chance to ask about the missing boy. Mr. Brown first appealed to the police. But they had no recordof him, and though inquiries were made of a number of theater owners, Fred Ward was not found. The man whose name he had mentioned as being the one he intended to see in Portland had moved away.
"Well, Fred may have come here," said Mr. Brown, "and, after he found his friend was gone, he may have drifted on to some other town. I'm afraid we can't find him."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bunny. "That's too bad!"
"Let us go to look for him," proposed Sue. "We found Nellie Jones, that girl who lives at the end of our street, when she was lost away over on the next block."
"Yes, but that was different from this," said Mrs. Brown. "Portland is a big city, and if you go wandering about in it you'll be worse lost than you were in the big woods. You children stay with me, and your father will do all he can to find Fred."
So Bunny and Sue had to be content to stay at the hotel, to go sightseeing with their mother, to go to the moving pictures, while Mr. Brown looked after his business. Several times each day Bunny and Sue went to the garage to see the dogs. And how glad Dix and Splash were to see the children!
Finally the day came when Mr. Brown had finished his business. He made several more attempts to find Fred, but could not do so and at last wrote to Mr. Ward, as he had promised, that, as far as could be learned, the missing boy was not in Portland.
"We will keep watch for him on our way back to Bellemere," Mr. Brown said in his letter. "We are returning by a different route from that by which we came. Every chance we get we will look for your boy."
Then the "Ark" was taken from the garage, to the delight of the dogs no less than that of the children, and once more the Browns were on their tour.
As Mr. Brown had said, they were going back a different way from the one they had taken on coming to Portland. This was to give his family a chance to see new towns and villages. And, as the weather still promised to be fine, all looked forward to a jolly auto tour.
Every time he came to a good-sized city,and whenever he met a traveling show, Mr. Brown inquired for Fred, but it seemed that the missing boy was well hidden. Undoubtedly he did not want to be found.
Bunny and Sue had great fun on the homeward trip, which lasted even longer than the outgoing one.
The party had ridden on for several days, each one marked by sunshine, when one evening they came to a little clump of trees beside the road. It was not far from a good-sized village.
"We'll stay here over night," said Mr. Brown, "and in the morning we'll take a little side trip to a waterfall not far away."
"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Bunny. "Maybe I can make a wooden water wheel, and have it splash in the falls and go around."
"No indeed you can't!" cried his father. "The falls are too big for that. They are seventy feet high."
But, as it happened, when morning came and Mr. Brown was about to start the automobile after breakfast, there was a suddencrash, and the big car settled down on one side, like a lame duck.
"Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What has happened now?"
"It sounded as if one of the big springs had broken," said her husband, getting down off the seat to look. "Yes," he added, "that's it. This means we'll have to stay here three or four days until I can get a new spring put in."
For a moment Bunny and Sue looked a trifle sad. Then Bunny cried:
"Oh, that will be fun. We can camp out in a tent in the woods."
"Yes, you and Sue can play at camping, if you like," said their father. "But I think you'll want to sleep in the auto at night."
"Oh, no! We won't!" laughed Sue. "Now for some fun camping out!" she added.
While Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad looked again at the spring of the auto, to see just how badly it was broken, Bunny and Sue, with Mrs. Brown, went over to the clump of trees, which was not far from the road.
"Oh, this will be a grand place!" cried Sue.
"Yes," agreed her brother. "We can put up the tent here," and he pointed to a little knoll amid a circle of trees, "and then if it rains the water will not come in."
Bunny's father had told him the first thing to do, in pitching a tent, was to see that it would be dry in case of rain.
"Oh, I think you children will come into the 'Ark' when it begins to shower," said Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, no! Why, it's lots of fun in a tent in the rain!" cried Bunny. "Let's get it up right away."
"Better wait until daddy or Uncle Tad can help you," said Mother Brown. "Now we'll sit down and rest in the woods."
"Well, as long as the 'Ark' had to break down, this was the best place for it to happen, I guess," said Mr. Brown, as, with Uncle Tad, he came over to the wood where Mrs. Brown and the children were seated on a fallen tree.
"Is the break a bad one?" asked his wife.
"Yes, I think we'll need an entirely new spring, and it will take nearly a week to get that. However, as the children will have as much fun camping out here, as they would traveling in the car, it will be all right. We are not far from a town, and we can get what we want to eat from there."
"I think our cupboard is pretty well filled now," said Mrs. Brown.
"You might look to see if there is anything you need," suggested her husband. "I am going into town to find a garage man and have him arrange to get a new spring for me. Uncle Tad can be putting up the tent while I'm away."
"I'm going to help," said Sue.
"And so am I!" cried Bunny.
As has been said, there was a tent carried on top of the Ark, and this was now taken down by the old soldier and carried to the wood, there to be set up for Bunny and Sue. The tent was large enough for the children to sleep in if they wanted to. In fact, they had done so once or twice. But their mother was not sure they would do so on this trip.
However, the tent was put up and the little folding cots made ready, while Bunny brought his popgun and cannon with which to play soldier, and Sue, her Teddy bear and set of dishes with which to play keeping-house.
By the time this was done Mr. Brown had come back from the village, bringing some chocolate candy for the children. He said he had seen an automobile dealer and it would take fully a week to get a new spring for the "Ark."
They had their dinner out-of-doors, and after that Bunny and Sue played games in the tent. They said they were surely going to sleep in it at night, so they made up the cotsand took their little pajamas with them into the canvas house.
"I'll have my flashlight, too," said Bunny; "and in case we want to get up in the night to get a drink, Sue, we can do it easy."
"That'll be nice," said his sister.
In the evening, while the Browns were at supper, an old man, who seemed to be a farmer, came strolling down the road, stopping at the big automobile, and looking from it over to the children's tent in the woods.
"You folks camping here?" he asked.
"Well, we're traveling in our car, and we've had to stop on account of a broken spring," explained Mr. Brown. "The children thought it would be fun to have a tent up in the woods. No objection I hope, if you own those trees."
"Bless your heart! No objection at all! I do own that patch of wood, and I'm glad to see the children's tent there. It sort of reminds me of war time, when I was in the army. You're welcome to stay as long as you like, and if you want anything I've got you can have it!"
"So you were in the war, too," remarked Uncle Tad, walking up to the farmer. "I'm a veteran myself. Where did you fight?"
The two elderly men began talking and soon found that they had been in the same Southern States together, though they had never met. Then, as evening came on, the two soldiers talked of the old days of the war, while Mr. Brown built a little campfire to make it seem pleasant. Bunny and Sue listened to the tales of battles until finally Mrs. Brown, noticing that their eyes were drooping, said:
"It's time for you tots to go to bed. Hadn't you better sleep in the automobile?"
"No, we're going to our tent," said Bunny, seriously.
"Yes, we want to camp out," added Sue, sleepy as she was.
Knowing that it was perfectly safe, for the children had often camped out before, Mr. and Mrs. Brown undressed the sleepy tots, and carried them to their cots in the tent. Dix and Splash were given beds of hay on the ground near the tent and told to stay on guard, which they would be sure to do.
"Do you think they'll sleep out all night?" asked Mr. Brown of his wife, as they made ready for bed in the automobile.
"I hardly think so," she said. "I'll leave the electric light, the one outside the 'Ark' near the back steps, burning, so if they want to crawl in here during the night they can."
"Good idea," said Mr. Brown.
Soon all was quiet around the big automobile and in the little white tent over amid the trees. Bunny and Sue had fallen asleep almost as soon as their heads touched the pillows.
But they did not sleep very long. Or so, at least, it seemed to them.
Sue awakened with a start. At first she could not remember where she was, though there was a bright moon shining outside and it made the tent light inside. Then she called:
"Bunny!"
"What's the matter?" he asked, for he was just about to awaken.
"Did you hear that?" asked Sue.
"What?" Bunny questioned.
"That sound."
Both listened. Outside the tent was a sound that could be plainly heard by the children.
"I—I guess it's Dix snoring," said Bunny after a while.
"Or maybe Splash talkin' in his sleep," added Sue. "We aren't afraid, are we, Bunny?"
"Not a bit, Sue! It's nice here!" Bunny's tone was very confident.
Bunny closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. So did Sue.
But neither of them could do so, though they closed their eyes very tight. Finally Sue asked:
"Bunny, are you asleep?"
"No. Are you?"
"No. And I don't believe I'm going to sleep. That funny noise is soundin' again. Say, Bunny, does Dix snore like: 'Who? Who? Who-ooo?'"
"No, I—I never heard him."
"Then it isn't Dix! It's something else," said the little girl firmly.
Bunny listened. Outside the tent he heard a mournful:
"Whoo! Who? Too-who!"
"Oh, I know what that is now!" cried Bunny. "It's an owl."
"Does an owl bite?" asked Sue:
"Sure they do!"
In the dim moonlight that shone into the tent Bunny could see his sister get out of her cot, put on her slippers and dressing robe, and then take up her Teddy bear, turning on the eyelights.
"Where are you going?" asked Bunny.
"I'm goin' home to my regular bed!" said Sue. "This tent is all right, but a owl might bite through it. You'd better come with me, Bunny Brown."
"I—I guess I will," said the little boy. "I wouldn't want you to go alone," he added brightly.
He, too, put on his robe and slippers, and then Sue, with her lighted Teddy bear, and Bunny, with his little flashlight, started toward the "Ark." The two dogs followed.
Up the steps, in the glare of the little outside electric light went the two tots. As they entered the automobile Mrs. Brown heard them and called:
"Who is there?"
"It's us," said Bunny.
"An old owl kept askin' us questions about who was it," added Sue, "an' we couldn't sleep. So we came in here."
"Crawl into your bunks," said Mother Brown. And that ended the children's sleeping in the tent, for a while at least.
The next morning Mr. Jason, the soldier-farmer who owned the wood where the tent was erected, came down to the "Ark."
"I'm going to drive over to Blue Lake to-day," he said. "Don't you folks want to go along? You might take your lunch and picnic there. It's got a waterfall."
"I did promise the children to take them to see it while we were here," said Mr. Brown. "Thank you, we should like to go with you." And a little later the Browns were at Blue Lake.
"Where is the waterfall?"
"Can't we go in swimming?"
"I want to row a boat!"
"I want to fish!"
As soon as they jumped out of Farmer Jason's wagon at Blue Lake, Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue were saying these things and asking these questions. The children saw before them a large body of water, that seemed a deep blue under the shining sun, and round about it were small hills "like strawberries on top of a shortcake," as Sue said.
"Oh, what a beautiful place!" ejaculated Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, folks around here thinks as how itisright pretty," said Farmer Jason. "But you haven't seen the prettiest part yet—that's the waterfall."
"Oh, that's where I want to go!" cried Bunny.
"And I want to go out in a boat," added Sue, renewing her first request.
"So do I! And fish!" chimed in Bunny.
"Now, one thing at a time," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "You are hardly here yet and you want to do half a dozen things. Be patient. We are going to stay all day, for we brought our lunch, and I think we shall have time for everything you want to do."
"Yes, pitch right in and enjoy yourselves," said Farmer Jason with a laugh. "That's what the lake's here for. A few of us farmers own it, and the churches in this neighborhood generally has picnics here. I've got to drive over a few miles to see a man about some horses I want to buy, but I'll stop back in plenty of time to take you home."
The Browns and their lunch being safely unloaded from the wagon, including, of course, Sue's Teddy bear, Farmer Jason drove off, while Dix and Splash scampered about in the woods on the shore of the lake and went swimming, something which Bunny and Sue wanted to do at once.
"I think it is a little cool," said MotherBrown. "Besides, I didn't bring your bathing suits. I guess you can get along without a swim to-day."
Indeed there was enough else to do at Blue Lake, as the children very soon found out. Of course it was not the first time they had been at a lake in the woods, but there seemed to be something new about this place.
Perhaps the trees were greener. Certainly the lake seemed of a deeper blue than any the children had seen before. They ran up and down the pebbly shore, threw stones into the water to watch them sink, after sending out a lot of rings that made little waves on the beach. They tossed sticks into the water, which the dogs were eager to swim out for and bring back. Then Bunny had an idea.
"Sue, let's go in wading!" he cried.
"Oh, yes, let's!" she agreed instantly; and without saying anything to their father or mother about it the two took off their shoes and stockings and were walking about in the shallow water near the shore.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown, with Uncle Tad, were sitting in the shade, looking out over thebeautiful lake. They were glad they had come on the little excursion, and the trouble of the broken spring of the automobile seemed turned into something good now.
"For," said Mrs. Brown, "it has given us a chance to camp out and to see this lake, and I would not have missed this sight for a great deal."
"Nor I, either," said her husband. "But suppose we go to take a look at the waterfall before lunch. I know I'll want to take a nap after I eat, and then it will soon be time for Mr. Jason to come back for us, so if we don't go now we may miss it."
"That's what I say," agreed Uncle Tad, and the three arose from the fallen tree on which they had been sitting. Just then Mother Brown caught sight of Bunny and Sue.
"Look at those children!" she cried.
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Brown quickly. "They haven't fallen in, I hope!"
"Well, they'reinall the same!" chuckled Uncle Tad. "Bunny has his knickerbockers rolled up as high as they'll go, and if Sue's clothes aren't wet I'm mistaken!"
For by this time, liking the fun so much, Bunny and Sue had waded out where the water was deeper, and their clothes had become splashed by the little waves they made as they moved along.
"Oh, dear! Such tykes!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Well, it isn't too cool for wading, though it is for swimming. But I must get them dry if we are to go to the waterfall."
Mrs. Brown had brought some old towels along, for she knew what might happen when the children were going to play near a lake, and while Bunny and Sue were being told that they should have first asked whether or not they could go in wading, they were drying their pink toes on towels and getting ready to put on their shoes and stockings again.
"But we didn't thinkwadingwas as bad asswimming," said Bunny as he rubbed some sand off his fat legs.
"It isn'texactly," his mother answered. "But this time it wasnearlyas bad. But never mind. Come on and we'll see the waterfall."
Farmer Jason had told Mr. Brown how towalk to the place where the waters of a small river toppled over the rocks into the lake, and having hidden the bundle of lunch up in a tree, where wandering dogs could not get at it, the family set off, Dix and Splash running on ahead, to see the waterfall.
The way was through a pleasant wood, with little paths running here and there, and if Bunny and Sue had been wandering alone they probably would have gotten lost. But the road to the waterfall was a well-marked one and Mr. Brown kept to it until pretty soon Mrs. Brown said:
"Hark, I hear something."
There was a distant roaring in the woods.
"It's a trolley car," said Bunny.
His father, mother and Uncle Tad laughed.
"What a boy!" cried Mother Brown. "To think the roar of a beautiful waterfall is but the noise of a trolley car! He will never be a poet, will he Daddy?"
"I don't want to be," said Bunny quickly. "I'm going to be a policeman when I grow up, and have a gun."
"All right," chuckled Daddy Brown."But a policeman's life is not an easy one."
The roaring noise became plainer, and then, as the path turned, the party came in sight of an open glade through which they could see the cataract.
It was not unlike a small Niagara in its way. For a distance back of the edge the waters of the little river bubbled and foamed over rough rocks. Then came a smooth stretch and, suddenly, the waters plunged over the broken ledge, falling about seventy feet to the lake below where they made a pool of foam.
"Isn't it wonderful?" murmured Mother Brown.
"It certainly is a beautiful picture," came from Mr. Brown.
"It's the prettiest little fall I've ever seen," added Uncle Tad.
Sue said nothing for a minute. Both she and Bunny were looking at the waterfall closely. Then Sue began to wrap a shawl, which she had brought along, over her Teddy bear.
"What's the matter?" asked Mother Brown.
"It's like rain all over Sallie Malinda," answered the little girl. "I don't want her to catch cold, for she might not shine her 'lectric eyes any more."
"That's all Sue seems to care about the fall," laughed Mother Brown in a whisper to her husband.
As for Bunny, he seemed to think them quite wonderful—for a time. He stood as near the edge as his father would let him, looking up the rapids down which the waters rushed, to fall over the rocky edge, dropping in a smother of foam to the blue lake below. Silently he watched the smooth waters glide down like some ribbon, and then, turning to his father, he asked:
"Is this all they do?"
"All what does?" inquired Mr. Brown, not quite understanding.
"All the waterfall does. Does it just keep falling?"
"All day and all night, day after day and night after night, forever and forever," said Mr. Brown, for really the waterfall was a marvelous sight.
"Then I've seen enough," said Bunny, turning away. "If they've been doing this a long while, and will do it all next week, I can look at 'em then. Now I want to go out in a boat. I saw one as we came through the picnic grounds. I've had enough of waterfalls."
Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad looked at one another. But they said nothing. Bunny started down the hill again, toward the lake, Sue following with her Teddy bear.
"Bunny surely will never make a poet," chuckled his mother.
"Oh, well, perhaps there are enough poets in the world now," said Mr. Brown with a laugh.
Bunny and Sue were first at the place where the boat was kept. There were several of them, and Mr. Jason had said that picnic parties used them. The lake was not deep, he had added, and was very safe, for any one who knew anything about boats.
Bunny and Sue finally prevailed on Uncle Tad to take them out for a row after lunch, and when the two children were in their seats Dix insisted on following.
Mr. Brown, who decided to remain on shore with his wife, tried to call back the dog, but he would not come. Nor would he come when Splash barked and whined at him, asking, in dog language, I suppose, if Dix did not want to come and have a game of "water tag."
But Dix evidently wished to stay in the boat, and finally they let him remain, as he was a quiet dog, not given to jumping about. He curled up in front behind Sue and went to sleep.
Uncle Tad rowed about the lake. Bunny wished he had brought his fishing pole and line along, as they saw fish jumping in several places.
"Never mind, we're going to be here nearly a week yet," said Uncle Tad. "We can come again."
Just how it happened Sue herself could not explain. But, somehow or other, her Teddy bear slipped from her lap and was about to fall out of the boat. That would never do, the little girl decided, and of course she made a quick motion to catch her toy.
And, just then, Bunny leaned on the sameside of the boat to pick up a floating stick so that the boat tipped.
"Look out!" cried Uncle Tad. "Sit still, children!"
But he spoke too late, for, in an instant, Sue fell out of the boat and into the lake. Uncle Tad was so surprised for a moment that he sat still. But not so Dix. He had awakened in a second, and with a loud bark sprang overboard to the rescue of the little girl.
"Oh my!" cried Bunny Brown, as he saw his sister topple out of the boat into the lake. "Oh, dear!"
By this time Uncle Tad, the old soldier, was ready for action. He took off his coat, without standing up in the boat, for well he knew how dangerous that was, and he was just ready to slip overboard into the water, the bottom of which he could see, when Dix, who had thrust his head under the surface, came up with Sue held in his strong jaws, his teeth fastened in her dress near the neck.
"Oh, Dix! Dix!" cried Bunny, in delight. "I'm so glad you saved my sister. Oh, Dix! I'll love you all my life!"
Dix, holding Sue with her head well above the water, was swimming toward the boat. Bunny, eager to do what he could to help his sister, was leaning over the side, ready to reachher as soon as the dog came near enough. Then Uncle Tad cried:
"Sit still, Bunny! I'll take Sue in. But I must do it at the stern of the boat, and not over the side, as that might tip us over. You sit still in the middle of the boat."
Bunny, who had lived near the seashore all his life knew that "stern" meant the back of the boat. And he remembered that his father had often told him if ever he fell out of a boat and wanted to get in again without tipping the boat over, to do so from the stern, or from the bow, which is the front. A row-boat will not tip backwards or forwards as easily as it will to either side.
As soon as Bunny heard what Uncle Tad said, he obeyed. He sat down in the bottom of the boat between the seats. Then the old soldier, going to the stern, called to Dix:
"Around this way, old dog! Bring her here and I'll take her in. Come on, Dix!"
Whether the dog knew that it was safer to bring a person in over the stern of a boat or over the bow instead of over the side, I do not know. At any rate he did what UncleTad told him to do, and in another moment was close to the boat with Sue in his jaws. Uncle Tad lifted her into the boat and at once turned her on her face and raised her legs in the air. This was to let any water that she might have swallowed run out.
Sue began to kick her legs. She gasped and wiggled.
"Keep still!" cried Bunny. "Uncle Tad is giving you first aid." Bunny had often seen the lifeguards at the beach do this to swimmers who went too far out.
"I—I won't keep still, Bunny Brown!" gasped Sue. "And I—I don't need any first aid! I just helded my breath under water, I did, and I didn't swallow much anyhow. I was holding my breath when Uncle Tad began to raise up my legs, that's why I wiggled and couldn't speak. I'm all right now and I'm much obliged to you and Dix, Uncle Tad, and I hope my Sallie Malinda isn't in the lake."
Sue said this all at one time and then she had to stop for breath. But what she said was true. Her father had given her swimming lessons, and Sue was really a good little diver, and perfectly at home where the water was not too rough or deep. And, as she had said, as soon as she felt herself in the water she had taken a long breath and held it before her nose and mouth went under.
So while Sue was holding her breath, Dix had reached down and caught her, before she had really sunk to the bottom. For Sue had on a light and fluffy dress, and that really was a sort of life preserver. As it was, the dog had brought Sue to the boat before she had swallowed more than a few spoonfuls of water, which did her no harm. Of course she was all wet.
"You've gone in swimming, anyhow," said Bunny, as soon as he saw that his sister was all right.
"Yes, and we must get her to shore as soon as we can," said Uncle Tad. "Climb in, Dix, and don't scatter any more water on us than you can help, though we'll forgive you almost anything for the way you saved Sue."
The dog climbed in, over the stern whereUncle Tad told him to, and then gave himself a big shake.
All dogs do that when they come from the water, and Dix only acted naturally. He gave Bunny and Uncle Tad a shower bath but they did not mind. Sue could not be made any wetter than she already was.
"Now for a fast row to shore," said Uncle Tad. "I saw a farmhouse not far from where we got out of Mr. Jason's wagon, and I guess you can dry your clothes there, Sue."
As Uncle Tad started to row Sue cried:
"But where's Sallie Malinda? Where's my Teddy bear? I won't go without her!"
She spoke as if she meant it. Bunny and Uncle Tad looked on both sides of the boat, and there, on the white sandy bottom of the lake, in about four feet of water, lay the Teddy bear. It's eyes were lighted which made it the more easily seen, for Sue must have pressed the switch as she herself fell overboard. And, as it happened, the batteries and electric lighted eyes were not harmed by water.
"I'll get her for you," said Uncle Tad, andhe reached for the Teddy bear with a boat hook, soon bringing up the toy.
"Oh, I hope she isn't spoiled!" cried Sue.
"She can dry out with you when you get to the farmhouse," said Bunny, and then Uncle Tad began to row toward shore.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown were surprised, and not a little worried, when they heard what had happened to Sue. But the little girl herself was quite calm about it.
"I just held my breath," she said. "I knew Bunny or somebody would get me out."
"I was going to," declared Bunny.
"Yes, I guess he'd have dived over in another second," remarked Uncle Tad. "But Dix was ahead of both of us."
"Well, I'm glad you're all right," said Mother Brown. "I do hope you won't take cold. We must get your wet clothes off."
Just then Mr. Jason came back with his horses and wagon, and he quickly drove the whole party to a near-by farmhouse where Sue, and all the others, were made welcome. Before the warm kitchen fire Sue was dressed in some dry clothes of a little girl who livedon the farm, while her own were put near the kitchen stove.
In a few hours the party was ready to go back to the "Ark," meanwhile having spent a good time at the farmhouse. Sue seemed all right, and really she had not been in much danger, for the water was not deep, and Uncle Tad was a good swimmer.
Bunny and Sue slept rather late the next morning, but when they did awaken they heard a queer rumbling on the road beside which their automobile was drawn up.
"Is that thunder?" asked Bunny.
"It sounds like it," answered Sue, who showed no signs of having caught cold from her bath in the lake.
The children peered from the little windows near their bunks. They saw going along the road a number of gaily painted wagons—great big wagons, drawn by eight or ten horses each, and with broad-tired wheels.
Together Bunny and Sue cried:
"It's a circus! It's a circus! Hurrah!"